This makes them look worse, not better.

If I believed that someone was actually killing babies in this country, I'd do anything in my power to stop them. Anything.

You seem to believe that, and yet do nothing. Either you don't believe what you're spewing, or you are a coward.

Want to protect marriage? Make divorce illegal. (Oh wait, Republicaans would never do that. But conservatives would.)
Want to greatly reduce abortions? Make contraception & sex ed easy to get. (Oh wait, Republicaans would never do that. But conservatives would.)
Want fewer people on welfare? Make a realistic job training program. (Oh wait, Republicaans would never do that. But conservatives would.)

This (along with a love of running up ridiculous deficits) is why, as a conservative, I can never, ever vote Republican. Instead, I'm stuck with the shitty centrists the Democrats nominate.

Yes, any statistics more than 3 years old should just be thrown away, as they are not remotely useful.~

(Or you could just Google it yourself instead of being a fucking dipshit.)

As you noted, just the opposite is true. The law explicitly *encourages* cops to act like asswipes -- as long as TERRORISM!

Obama is, in almost every policy area, a Reagan Republican. This is part of why Republicans hate him (the other part is that he doesn't have an R after his name).

That's over a hundred years away. People said in the '70s that growth was going to stop and we'd all be eating dirt. It didn't happen. Why? Because the world doesn't just consist of the U.S. and Europe. Massive growth in Japan, China, and India over the past 5 decades has fueled greater earnings on Wall Street than ever before.

So what happens when we can't count on growth from Asia? Nothing -- we still have Africa and South America for cheap labor, a rising consumer class, and vast (mostly untapped) resources. And this doesn't even take into account any new technologies that could further reduce corporate expenses (substantially cheaper energy, for example).

So yes, eventually additional growth will be impossible, and the system will collapse (unless we've moved substantially away from our current system). But we'll all be long dead by then.

Post-Enlightenment? It was at the core of Enlightenment religious thinking.

The more socialist countries in Europe are in much better financial condition than the rest, and had much less of a downturn than the U.S.

Being a capitalist doesn't have to make you dumb.

Yes, that's why we don't have 2 of any other organs. Oh, wait ...

Yes, that's why it's not possible to design a system where one acts as a backup and/or reinforcement rather than as a single standalone actor. Oh, wait ...

Beside the point. Hearts fail all the time. If you subscribe to the Intelligent Design hypothesis, wouldn't you expect a lower failure rate of the Designer's designs? Something VASTLY superior to where human science will be in a few hundred years? Hearts that last more than a measly 80 years (on average)? Eyes that don't require glasses or contacts or surgery (like every single person I know)? Joint that are a little less fragile? Systems that don't destroy themselves when brought into contact with certain allergens or viruses?

For a Designer -- who is presumably ageless and immortal, if not perfect -- wouldn't you expect at least a higher success rate? Or is the hypothesis that we're just a test species while the bugs get worked out?

Shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic. Neither Microsoft or Zynga has any near-term strategy or long-term future.

Yes, MS will continue to stay afloat a lot longer thanks to legacy contracts and ingrained habits. But in 15 years, they'll be lucky to be another Yahoo (who will be long dead, along with Zynga).

Russia and China have few secrets they'd be embarrassed about. They're happily, openly authoritarian. The US, on the other hand, pretends to be run according to the rule of the people, making it much easier to embarrass.

If your idea of "having an online presence" is tweeting and having a Facebook page, I would not hire you.

If your idea of "having an online presence" is tweeting and having a Facebook page, I would not hire you. Not that those are bad, but surely an IT guy can think of a thousand other ways of managing an online identity that are equally (or more) effective.